Three Shortcuts to Find your Career Passion
Life doesn’t come with our own personal manual. If it did, it would be a lot easier to live, but perhaps less exciting as well. Only the terrifying delight of sheer experience can get us to where we are supposed to be. The process of exploring and eventual discovery is then a necessary one for leading a fulfilled life. Along the path of exploration, there are a whole host of failures, tragedies and pains we have to wade through to get to the successes, the triumphs and the pleasures.
Psychologist Garry Schwartz is his book The Paradox of Choice discusses a unique phenomenon that the modern consumer society has brought about. With the rise of more choices when it comes to the products we buy and the services we use, to even our choices in families and relationships, decision-making has become a more anxiety-ridden affair then when our options were fewer. Variety has paradoxically made us more nerve-wracked.
A similar analogy can be found in how we pursue passions in our career paths. Whereas in much of human history we had a very limited range of viable work options within our scope of interest, now there seems to be many more potential routes that seem tempting, especially with the rise of the fourth industrial revolution. With only a brief amount of time on our hands and a dizzying array of options, we would want our career selection to reflect what is our deepest inspiration, but often end up on the path of least resistance, easy access and adequate compensation.
The search for our core passion can be a long one, fraught with many dead ends and false starts. Ideally, we would want to locate this passion within ourselves earlier rather than later in life, and spend the most productive period of our career focused on this burning ember inside. To this end, here are three quick and tested methods to identifying your career passion.
Reflect on where your time is freely spent now
The search should begin at home. You can ask yourself the fundamental question: which activities and hobbies are you spending currently in your spare time in a manner that is less effort and more pleasure? What topics occupy your thinking and what interests spur you into action?
While this may seem quite a basic point, the reality is that few of us reflect on our own habits and what they tell about us. We may expect circumstances from outside to come to show us a yellow brick road but finding a passion is a self-directed process. It may the case that your passion can be built on the foundation of your present interests, or may be the logical extension of where you mind is inclined to at the present time.
Look at those you admire
Who are the role models and figures in your career and life that inspire you? What actually inspires you about them, is it just their charisma and personalities or is there something unique in their accomplishments that draws you to them?
It may not be the case that their particular practices have to match what you wish to do. But there is something about their nature of work, be it in politics or technology or some other area, that has that figure stand out to you over others. Contemplate about what is unique in the way they operate, and try to imagine yourself in a similar line of work. If that image resonates with you, you may have a lead on where to proceed.
Reverse your flow of activity
Often passion can become illusive due to being stuck in a boring loop of familiarity. For your passion to manifest, you may need to shift your current mode of activity. Finding any meaningful requires time to think and momentum. Changing your routine can create openings for you to reflect on what matters, whereas the humdrum of your schedule (or lack thereof) will only ensure your limbo continues.
So if you are stacked with an assortments of tasks, try to occasionally free up your schedule and allow yourself the breathing space to consider bigger things in life. And if you are stuck in a languid and slow-paced slump, try to up the pace of activities, and just by being busier your mind may move towards productive and ultimately passionate uses of your time.
Those who taste passion in their career will then be faced with a bigger struggle, how to ensure that passion is sustained and eventually converted into a purpose. This is normally not easy, and may require seeking active guidance from those with more experience. But at least take the first step on the road to a more fulfilled career, and let passion be your motivation.
